Honorees are Set for TC's 2013 Convocation

TC has announced the recipients of its 2013 Medal for
Distinguished Service, which will be awarded at Convocation ceremonies on
Tuesday, May 21 and Wednesday, May 22, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
More than 1,200 graduates are expected to receive master's degrees in two
ceremonies on May 21st. (Several hundred more students not attending will also
receive their degrees.) The number of doctoral degree recipients, who will be
hooded at a ceremony on May 22nd, will be known several days before the
ceremony.

The 2013 medalists, who will also deliver remarks at the
ceremonies, are:

TC alumna Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the New York State
Board of Regents, who will speak at the first master's degree ceremony on
Tuesday, May 21st at 9:30 a.m. Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Tisch
has advanced the priorities that define Teachers College: practice, policy and
leadership in education, health and the arts. The first woman to hold the post
of Chancellor, she has served in leadership roles with organizations ranging
from The Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York to the Mt. Sinai
Children's Center Foundation to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

A former first-grade teacher, Dr. Tisch has made a lasting
mark on education, which she calls "the greatest civic and civil liberties
issue of our time." She
has fought for higher standards and for schools to have the supports necessary
to achieve them. She has advocated for better measures of the
college and career readiness of students across New York State and has fought
for a more equitable distribution of resources across New York City's high
schools. Tisch also has worked directly to ensure that TC remains a leading
force for education progress, marshaling support for the Teachers College
Community School, the pre-K-8 public school that anchors TC's broader
partnership with a group of public schools in Harlem.

The journalist and author Thomas Friedman will speak at the
afternoon master's degree ceremony on May 21st at 2 p.m. Perhaps more than any
other journalist and author over the past three decades, Mr. Friedman, the
veteran New York Times reporter, editor and columnist has identified and
interpreted the trends and events that are shaping our world. His 1989 book From Beirut to Jerusalem has provided
generations of readers with an understanding of how the region's history is
intimately bound up with its current conflicts. In The Lexus and The Olive Tree and The World is Flat, he forecast the tide of globalization and anticipated
the challenge that has confronted the United States since the 2008 financial
crisis: how to retool the workforce and the core expertise of industries to
meet the challenges of off-shoring and other developments that have leveled the
economic playing field worldwide. And in Hot,
Flat and Crowded and That Used to Be
Us, he has explored ways in which the nation can get its economic groove
back.

TC alumnus Lee Sing Kong, Director of Singapore's National
Institute of Education, will speak at the doctoral ceremony on Wednesday, May
22nd at 2 p.m. Lee -- who earlier in his career conducted award-winning research
in the application of aeroponics to commercial agriculture -- has focused on
creating a quality teaching workforce that is highly skilled, well respected
and committed to self-improvement. He has strengthened the partnership between
the NIE and Singapore's schools in order to engage senior teachers in mentoring
students and, more broadly, to connect the theories imparted in teacher
training to the realities of classroom practice. This effort has been codified
in NIE's 3:3:3 strategic plan and TE21 teacher education model for the 21st
century. TE21calls for teachers to place the learner at the heart of what
schools do, to understand learner diversity, and to collaborate with colleagues
in partnerships that create a stronger community of practitioners.

Published Wednesday, May. 8, 2013

Merryl Tisch

Lee Sing Kong

Thomas Friedman

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Honorees are Set for TC's 2013 Convocation

TC has announced the recipients of its 2013 Medal for
Distinguished Service, which will be awarded at Convocation ceremonies on
Tuesday, May 21 and Wednesday, May 22, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
More than 1,200 graduates are expected to receive master's degrees in two
ceremonies on May 21st. (Several hundred more students not attending will also
receive their degrees.) The number of doctoral degree recipients, who will be
hooded at a ceremony on May 22nd, will be known several days before the
ceremony.

The 2013 medalists, who will also deliver remarks at the
ceremonies, are:

TC alumna Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the New York State
Board of Regents, who will speak at the first master's degree ceremony on
Tuesday, May 21st at 9:30 a.m. Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Tisch
has advanced the priorities that define Teachers College: practice, policy and
leadership in education, health and the arts. The first woman to hold the post
of Chancellor, she has served in leadership roles with organizations ranging
from The Trust for Cultural Resources of the City of New York to the Mt. Sinai
Children's Center Foundation to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

A former first-grade teacher, Dr. Tisch has made a lasting
mark on education, which she calls "the greatest civic and civil liberties
issue of our time." She
has fought for higher standards and for schools to have the supports necessary
to achieve them. She has advocated for better measures of the
college and career readiness of students across New York State and has fought
for a more equitable distribution of resources across New York City's high
schools. Tisch also has worked directly to ensure that TC remains a leading
force for education progress, marshaling support for the Teachers College
Community School, the pre-K-8 public school that anchors TC's broader
partnership with a group of public schools in Harlem.

The journalist and author Thomas Friedman will speak at the
afternoon master's degree ceremony on May 21st at 2 p.m. Perhaps more than any
other journalist and author over the past three decades, Mr. Friedman, the
veteran New York Times reporter, editor and columnist has identified and
interpreted the trends and events that are shaping our world. His 1989 book From Beirut to Jerusalem has provided
generations of readers with an understanding of how the region's history is
intimately bound up with its current conflicts. In The Lexus and The Olive Tree and The World is Flat, he forecast the tide of globalization and anticipated
the challenge that has confronted the United States since the 2008 financial
crisis: how to retool the workforce and the core expertise of industries to
meet the challenges of off-shoring and other developments that have leveled the
economic playing field worldwide. And in Hot,
Flat and Crowded and That Used to Be
Us, he has explored ways in which the nation can get its economic groove
back.

TC alumnus Lee Sing Kong, Director of Singapore's National
Institute of Education, will speak at the doctoral ceremony on Wednesday, May
22nd at 2 p.m. Lee -- who earlier in his career conducted award-winning research
in the application of aeroponics to commercial agriculture -- has focused on
creating a quality teaching workforce that is highly skilled, well respected
and committed to self-improvement. He has strengthened the partnership between
the NIE and Singapore's schools in order to engage senior teachers in mentoring
students and, more broadly, to connect the theories imparted in teacher
training to the realities of classroom practice. This effort has been codified
in NIE's 3:3:3 strategic plan and TE21 teacher education model for the 21st
century. TE21calls for teachers to place the learner at the heart of what
schools do, to understand learner diversity, and to collaborate with colleagues
in partnerships that create a stronger community of practitioners.